YES! Music Picks :: Summer 2010

Musical inspiration while putting out this issue.

posted May 13, 2010

Thistled Spring

Justin Ringle has found his happy place in this new Horse Feathers release. Songs are still lush with swirling fugues and uniquely percussive cello and violin. But now Ringle is singing about fresh starts and renewed hope, and his voice floats confidently above it all.

Leave Your Sleep

After a seven-year hiatus following a new baby, Natalie Merchant returns with an album of poems about childhood. Works from 19th and 20th century American and British poets—e.e. cummings, Robert Graves, Robert Louis Stevenson, even Mother Goose—become songs about growing up, both silly and serious.

Your Wish

Iranian chanteuse Rana Farhan mixes ancient Persian texts with smoky jazz and blues. She has described her aim here as: “What it would be like if Rumi and Forough were hangin’ out with Lester Young and Billie Holiday.”